When Joseph Mowlah-Baksh applied for disability benefits in February, he received a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions asking to see his passport, to allow officials to decide his “current status whilst living in Great Britain”.
The former hospital porter has lived in Birmingham since 1959 when he arrived as a baby from Trinidad and has struggled for decades to get a British passport. When he received the letter, he assumed that he would not be eligible for the benefits, just as he has previously been told he is not eligible for a driving licence and not permitted to work in the country he has lived in for six decades.
